“According to a group of Christian scholars, this comes as the world is experiencing an explosion of ancient occultism combined with wicked fascination for ghosts and all things paranormal. In the United States alone, there are now more than two hundred thousand registered witches, the group claims, and as many as 8 million unregistered practitioners of “the craft.” On college and high school campuses, vampires, werewolves, and other “creatures of the night” are esteemed as objects of desire and idolized by young men and women who view them as cult icons of envious mystical power. Evidently, church goers are enchanted by the darkness as well. An April 13, 2011 article “Mysticism Infecting Nazarene Beliefs” was preceded only a few days before by a Telegraph article describing how a “surge in Satanism” inside the church has sparked a “rise in demand for exorcists” within traditional religious settings.”

“Whereas Hecate was elsewhere known as Hecate-Propylaia, “the one before the gate,” a role in which she guarded the entrances of homes and temples from nefarious outside evils (talk about Satan casting out Satan!); and whereas she was also known as Hecate-Propolos, “the one who leads,” as in the underworld guide of Persephone and of those who inhabit graveyards; and finally whereas she was known as Hecate-Phosphoros, “the light bearer,” her most sacred title and one that recalls another powerful underworld spirit, Satan, whose original name was Lucifer (“the light bearer”); it was nevertheless her role as the feminist earth-goddess-spirit Hecate-Chthonia that popularized her divinity and commanded reverence from among the common people. […] The connection between ancient paganism and the modern customs and costumes of Halloween is easy to trace. The Hecatian myths adopted by Celtic occultists continue in pop culture, symbolism, and tradition…”

As I said before, these people are the dark reflection of the Jesus Ween-ers. Who take the idea of occult infiltration of America to its tinfoil-helmet-wearing conclusions. They want to get as many people in their Ark/underground Christian bunker as possible before our prophesied take-over happens. It’s easy (and fun) to mock this stuff, but a significant number of ordinary, decent, people are susceptible to narratives like these. It’s why I’m so critical of books about Pagans written for Christians, because they all feed a narrative that is ultimately damaging to interfaith relations and their own children. I’m more than happy to let Horn and his followers dig trenches and scare each other with spooky stories of Hekate’s minions, but I’m more concerned by the innocent Goth/Pagan/GLBT/different kids who might be damaged when their propaganda gets passed around at a local church or Christian book store. That’s when it crosses the line into being dangerous and damaging to our society.

There are lots of articles and essays of interest to modern Pagans out there, sometimes more than I can write about in-depth in any given week. So The Wild Hunt must unleash the hounds in order to round them all up.

Earlier this week PNC-Minnesota reported that Volkshof Kindred, a Heathen 501c3 organization located in the Twin Cities, recently purchased a building to be used as a Hof. The group says this is the first dedicated, group-owned, public heathen Hof (temple building) in North America. The residential building, which the group is currently renovating, is located in a northern Minneapolis suburb.